This year the Basque Water Authority URA has published its results of the ecological state of the rivers in the Autonomous Basque Community and once again the River Butroi in one of its four control points shows a deficient quality and in another of the points the quality is described as bad. Both these points are downriver from Mungia Water Treatment Plant and although this plant does its job correctly there are many urbanized areas that are not connected to it, in particular that of Laukariz urbanization. This is a problem which has been going on for far too long with year after year the river showing a bad ecological state in the bassin from Mungia to Butroi Castle in the analysis carried out by URA. When will Mungia municipal authorities solve this problem so the river can recover quality and species.
It must be remembered that the river Butroi is considered of Special Interest for the Recovery of the European Mink (Mustela lutreola), a species which is threatened with extinction, not just here but globally. The ecological situation of the river basin must be reversed so that the Provincial Government of Bizkaia can comply with its own Strategy for the Protection, Improvement and Management of Biodiversity. Only last year, for reasons still unknown, many fish were found dead in the river in Mungia central park. The level of chlorine in the river was above the acceptable level but the source of this chlorine is still, as far as we know, under investigation. Whatever the origin, the fact is that according to URA the main problem with the river is that the level of COD is above the acceptable limits and this due to the problems mentioned above.
